IBM BPM, V8.0.1, All platforms > Authoring services in Integration Designer > Defining and transforming data > Defining data objects
Business graphs
Business graphs are wrappers that are added around a business object, or around a hierarchy of business objects, to provide additional capabilities.
For example, you could carry Change Summary and Event Summary information related to the business object in the business graph.
Business graphs are available in the runtime to provide supporting metadata to adapters connecting to backend systems. Depending on the adapter, a business graph may or may not be required to indicate to the backend system what this data represents, or what action should be taken regarding it.
There are backend systems which, when they receive a container of data (a business object) will recognize that it has been received, yet still needs to know what to do with this container. The business graph provides a verb, such as "Create" or "Delete". For "Create", the business graph would take a customer business object and create an entry in your database for it. For "Delete", the business graph would take the customer business object and delete the corresponding entry from your database as well as change-tracking information. Change-tracking information basically means, that the business graph recognizes that information was updated as it passes through an application such as an address change of a customer prompting a new purchase order being added to the list of previous orders.
- Create a business graph from an existing business object
A business graph can be created from an existing business object.